REVEALED: Elections Canada paid Assembly of First Nations almost $1M for "voter outreach" -- while key AFN members campaigned against Harper

Elections Canada offered a sole sourced contract worth nearly $1 million to the Assembly of First Nations to engage in voter outreach even as key members of the organization made highly partisan statements calling for the defeat of the Conservative government.

Documents obtained through access to information detail a contract worth up to $975,000 that included a clause calling for the AFN to be non-partisan while acting as a supplier of services to Elections Canada. Under a listing of “Minimum Essential Requirements” in the statement of work, Elections Canada included this statement, “Certification that they are able to comply with an avoidance of political partisanship provision.”

Despite the provision, key leaders of the AFN called for the Conservative Party to be thrown from power even as the organization they represented was working for Elections Canada to increase voter turnout among aboriginal voters.

Several of the comments were made from the main podium at the AFN annual general meeting in Montreal last July and reported on by major media outlets.

A lengthy article in The Globe and Mailquoted Derek Nepinak, the Grand Chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, “We all have the ability to cast a ballot to effect change in Ottawa. We can mitigate the damages by voting for a different government in this upcoming election.”

Nepinak also told the crowd that they need to make sure that when they returned home to their communities that the youth they represented were registered to vote.

Nepinak advocated voting strategically for the Liberal or New Democrat with the best chance of defeating the Conservatives. “Look to the polls to see who is closest to overthrowing the representative in blue. Is it going to be orange or is it going to be red?” he said.

“Strategically vote to make sure that blue doesn’t get in there. I have no qualms in standing here and saying I have lost all faith in this federal government in terms of listening to us and advancing our interests,” Nepinak was quoted as saying by Postmedia.

Also quoted by Postmedia were leaders from Ontario and Quebec:

“These are very exceptional times,” Ghislain Picard, the AFN’s regional chief for Quebec said outside the meeting. “We’ve had nine years of a Tory government that has done nothing positive for our people."

Grand Chief Pat Madabhee of Ontario’s Anishinabek Nation began his address to a session on getting out the aboriginal vote by joking, “I’ll keep this very brief. We’ve got to get rid of these Conservatives. Thank you.”

A copy of the Advance Contract Award Notice detailing what was expected of the AFN during the contract period specifically said there was a great need to be impartial and non-partisan.

“Due to the nature of the requirement and the importance for Elections Canada to disseminate information to the public in an impartial and non-partisan manner, an avoidance of political partisanship clause is a requirement,” the contract notice reads.

Asked whether Elections Canada ever raised the highly partisan statements with AFN’s leadership or revoked any part of the contract, a spokesman for the organization released talking points on the important outreach work being done by the AFN.

“Elections Canada priority is to communicate with all electors on where, when, and ways to vote and register in the upcoming election,” John Enright said via email.

“These communications efforts target all groups that may need additional information about voting, including First Nations, seniors, homeless and student electors.”

What me worry?… Given the cant of Trudeau Junior’s policies since taking the oath of office a month ago, “The chief’s driveway will always be paved”… So, “Move along, Move along, Nothing to see here”… (And I think a loud “burp” can be interjected somewhere in there)…

Funny. Here’s good story about the Indians. I know a business where the Non Native is the major customer. They love the cheap fuel and the cheap smokes. Last month this guy, a small business owner 20km away, always finds one of the reserve boys to buy his banded cigarettes ( not the Native brands) for his store. He starts bitching away about the elections results. We agree with him. When he left with his $2000 worth of ciggies both Native and not (mostly Belmonts) I called the cops and reported a drunk driver heading north. His store is closed for some strange reason now. What a moron.

Now their MESSIAH has come to help the spoilt-rotten aboriginals! When ever they want something, they just cry the blues. What do they do with all the money they already get from the Federal Government! THOESBIGCHIEFS keep all the money! THOESBIGCHIEFS are living high off the hog and the average native is doing without. JT just wants to give them more money for their votes. Now it is pay back!

Robert Dunning – maybe PET2 on steroids? PET was at least intelligent and ran the show, but his boy only wants the money and fame, and others are leading his show, to the detriment of Canada. This guy is much more dangerous than daddy, though they can both spend money like drunken sailors, when it’s not theirs.

Bravo Zulu , some of us prefer injun ( cause we the feather in the head men not the dot on the forehead men ).
But you also bring up a good point about how we are treated by the left and the right.
Liberals labeled us aboriginals and first nations
whereas Conservatives call us friends, family, neighbors and fellow Canadians.
Reading your comment reminded me of that.

amazing. indians, east coast, quebec, and toronto voted for this twit and will surely be rewarded with billions from the west. good for the scum liberals to drain our taxes again to pay for this crap. slavery is a wonderful thing is it not PET 2?

Charlton G ,that guy you’re talking about must have been a chief or council member , because any of us who live off the reserve get screwed just as royally as everyone else .
Most of us believe in less taxes and smaller government .

So, the aboriginals were bought off too, to vote against the Conservatives! A little different from the free TV’s being given to aboriginals some years back to vote Lieberal! No surprise here. Just more folk looking for more freebies courtesy of the the rest of us!

Oooops! I forgot to say that when the aboriginal fellow who is on disability was single and rooming in a Canadian woman’s house, when his landlady was away, he put for sale signs up in the neighbourhood, sold all her furniture, then cleared out.

We know two aboriginal fellows. One took out a 4-year OSPS loan for university because his band suddenly ran out of money. He graduated, is self employed and lives with a woman who works and pays taxes. His brother somehow managed to obtain funding for two university degrees but decided not to work. With the help of a sleezy Chinatown lawyer and by lying about his mental state, he managed to get into the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) which supports him, his wife (who somehow also managed to get onto disability) and a child. There are all sorts of aboriginal people. The problem with the second one I mentioned, is that he thinks Canadians owe him something (besides tuition) and he’s going to make them pay by hook or by crook.

Most reserves do not have access to good jobs, and now that the communists are killing off Canada, there will be even less jobs on the reserves. I think we should haul those elitist Liberal butts out of their cushy chairs, and drag them out to some of these reserves, to show them how most of our natives live. The Liberals are to blame for most of the problems on the reserves, because they could carless about the chronic drug problems, or that these kids are left on their own to raise themselves, and they in despair turn to drugs and violence. They won this illegal election, and won’t do anything to help those who are stuck in poverty on the reserves. Now they are bringing in 50,000 unemployed immigrants, who will deprive our natives even further. The Liberals will be responsible for the demise of the natives, and ultimately Canada as we knew it.

Native don’t pay income tax or gas taxes . One of my clients made over 1million a year. He paid no taxes and maintained a house on a reserve I remember watching his son play hokey and all the Chiefs would show up in stretched limos.

Don Cloud on a lot of left wing sites , the right wing comments get deleted. Even on the CBC we pay for, which even you must admit is wrong. Private sites can do as they please, CBC should serve everyone. And this stuff keeps natives subjugated and the corrupt Chiefs rich while they suffer.

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